The Arizona sentinel., 1887-08-13

| tdE6. Il6 dShCu lllC II NdulCu d IC- ceipt I told him he had better give me line. just to show that it had been received in that house. He wrote a simple acknowledgement of the recep- ton of the amount. l took it and ran the blotter over it; then folded it up and put it into my vest pocket, and went to my dinner. Before returning to the store-the weather had grown cooler than it was in the morning-I changed my pants and vest for thicker ones; and forgot the receipt in the vest pocket. That night when went home it was not to be found, and l have not been able to find it since.
 'Pm almost through, sir. Just one week from the day on which I paid the money in at Sturgis', Mr. Merriam re- ceived a letter from Colonel Penning- ton, in which, at the end-after the business-occurred this passage: My dear old fellow, when are you going to let me hear from you? I haven't been blessed with your kind remembrance, don't know when.'"
 "When was that?" I asked.
 Hast week Tuesday, sir"
 And you gave the money in at Sturgis' counting-room when?"
 ''The Tuesday before that, sir-the thirteenth of the present month of Sep tember."
 I nodded for him to go on. 
 After Mir. Merriam had showed me the letter. and told me to read that sentence, he asked me if was sure 1 had given the money to be sent to Colonel Pennington. You can imagine was indignant But I didn't know then how much I'd been suspected. held in as best could, and told him 1 had given the money into the hands of the bookkeeper, Damon Wadleigh. During the afternoon he-Merriam- called in at Sturgis' and-sir-O! I can't understand it-they all-Sturgis and Wadleigh, and all there employed swear that they never saw the money!
 'I forgot to say, sir, that MT. Mer- riam asked me if took receipt; and it was when I confessed the loss of that that my heart began to quake. Yes, sir, they swear-all in the counting-room-that they never saw the money. MT. Sturgis says he filled out check, as he had said he should. on the afternoon of the 18th inst, and mailed it to Colonel Penning- ton, at Joliet but nothing had been received-so nothing had been covered in--on the account of Merriam & Co.,"
 Then, in broken accents, the young man told me that he had been accused of embezzlement; had been brought before a trial justice for preliminary examination, and bound over to appear before the grand-jury in October. The evidence before the justice had been deemed by most of those present as conclusive.
 There was the case. Bracket said he had searched in vain for the receipt But the missing receipt was not all The lifting of the mortgage from the house told heavily against him.
 He had himself paid the money, and the business had been done in his name. Yet he had utterly refused to tell where the money had come from, and had almost cried-had fairly shed tears-when pressed and badgered on that point. That the astute justice had taken as sure sign of guilt.
 ocGad hin, # ho no,o.1,. Wadleigh of having appropriated the money to his own use. He shook his head dubiously. He knew not what to think. He and Wadleigh had always been most excellent friends, though he had never been able to keep exactly the expensive company that Damon did. But, mind you" he added, '1don't mean to intimate by that that he ever lives beyond his means"
 l thought the matter over. Really and sincerely, I believed my client in nocent
 Look here" said I, as the thought struck me; ''did Colonel Pennington speak, in the letter which Merriam showed to you, of the amount due him from your firm?'
 '1 am very sure he did not" re- piled the youth. 'He-the Colonel and Arnold Merriam, were college mates, and have been close friends ever since. My thought of the pas sage was that he had missed his old friends chatty. newsy letters"
 l had about made up my mind to send the young man away until the next day, that might think, and per- haps, investigate, when the thought occurred to me-a thought so simple so exceedingly simple-that it had not found lodgment before: What does Colonel Pennington say about it?''
 Bracket didn't know. He was very sure the Colonel had not been written to.
 Well" said l, ''let us begin at the bottom. The money was for Colonel Pennington. If there had been no wrong done by anybody, he should have received it." And I sat down and wrote as follows, with date and the address at my end of the line:
 To COLONEL WALTER PENNINGTON, JOLIET. ILL: Have you received five hundred dollars, which should have been forwarded to you from Arnold Merriam, of this place, on the 18th in- stantf Answer immediately to me.
 l signed my name; gave it to Charles Rrackett hada him faEa if tO tba Waet